HYBE Achieves Record Sales of 2.65 Trillion Won in Company History, Driven by Live Performance Business

HYBE has recorded its highest sales figures to date. According to the company on the 12th, its consolidated sales for 2025 amounted to 2.6499 trillion won, representing a roughly 18% increase from the previous year. The live performance segment served as the primary driver of this growth. Last year, HYBE held a total of 279 global events (250 concerts and 29 fan meetings), generating 763.9 billion won in sales from this sector—up by about 69% compared to the prior year. Thanks to these strong performance results, HYBE ranked fourth globally in Billboard’s “2025 Boxscore Annual Report” under the “Top Promoter” category, entering the ranks of the “Big 4.” HYBE also maintains a solid presence in the album market. Cumulative annual sales across Circle Chart tracked platforms totaled approximately 19.6 million units, accounting for around 30% of the market share. The annual streaming volume for HYBE’s music group artists reached 3.7 billion times, with a 3% share on the global Spotify Top 200 list. In 2025, digital music accounted for roughly 37% of HYBE’s total album revenue. However, its consolidated operating profit for that year was 49.9 billion won, a decrease of about 73% from the previous year. HYBE explained that this decline was caused by initial investment costs associated with the debuts of new artists and one-time expenses resulting from business restructuring. The simultaneous debuts of multiple artists such as Aoen in Japan, CORTIS in South Korea, and Santos Bravos in Latin America led to concentrated upfront costs. In North America, HYBE is shifting its existing management-focused structure toward an IP business model centered around record labels. As part of adapting to this new business structure, the company recognized a impairment loss of approximately 200 billion won for its management division. Nevertheless, this is an accounting loss without actual cash outflow, and given the strengthened fundamentals of HYBE America, the risk of further significant reductions appears limited. The global superfan platform Weverse achieved annual profitability through revenue structure reforms and operational efficiency improvements. Diversifying income streams by expanding artist onboarding, optimizing e-commerce operations, and growing digital businesses contributed to this positive performance. This year, HYBE plans to further strengthen its influence in the global music market. BTS will release its fifth studio album, “ARIRANG,” on March 20, marking their first full-group album in about four years. This album is set to lead to the largest-ever world tour in HYBE’s history, showcasing the company’s global operational capabilities. In South Korea, a new girl group will debut this year, while in North America, a follow-up global girl group will be introduced to carry forward the success formula of KATSEYE. To enhance shareholder value, HYBE unveiled a new three-year shareholder return policy. It will introduce the “minimum dividend system” for the first time among K-content companies, guaranteeing a minimum dividend of 500 won per share. The dividend calculation basis has also been changed from net profit to consolidated free cash flow (FCF), which reflects actual cash generation capacity. From 2025 to 2027, the company plans to use up to 30% of its free cash flow for shareholder returns.